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Sapthamashree Thaskaraha: Mission possible!

Posted by Unknown | Tuesday, September 16, 2014 | Posted in ,




After ‘North 24 kaatham’, Anil Radhakrishnan Menon is out to play with ‘Sapthamashree Thaskaraha’, displaying his affinity for stutter-causing Sanskritized words along with fine film-making.

Seven thieves, one goal. While you can extend this tagline to make up the whole story, what’s to be seen is how it all unfolds.

The seven thieves get to know each other in jail. All of them have lost something—reputation, family, trust. But it isn’t a dismal story; it puts together events from all the seven lives that affected them in myriad ways and also landed them in jail.

Among the bunch of jailbirds, the quiet one is Krishnanunni (Prithviraj), whose case coincides with that of Noble (Nedumudi Venu) leaving them with a common bad man-to-be-vanquished. And this becomes everybody’s motive for making a master-plan to hit back at the bad man—Pious (Joy Mathews).

What ensues is how they devise plans to get to their goal once they’re released from jail. But why should everybody get involved in two peoples’ personal vengeance? Money is the factor.

The movie isn’t strictly a thriller; it has excellent comedy, some light flirtation with social issues, and elements of a thriller, in ways that one would wonder where the story is leading to.

What’s on display is fine direction, one that doesn’t stray from the main plot; the only problem being, it gets slightly drab when one plan takes so long to be executed, and there aren’t as many hurdles or setbacks as a thriller is expected to have.

As for the story, if it was more layered, since there were a bunch of very interesting ‘thaskaras’, and if the adventures and misadventures were more sporadic, the fun would have multiplied.

An amusing aspect is how the movie has taken a rather serious past, involving murder and death, and placed it in the ‘present’ of the thieves, who aren’t out to avenge themselves by unleashing violence. There’s enough humour to pull the darkness out of the frames.

Although it will make one wonder how a sullen Krishnanunni with a rather painful trail of events that preceded his jail tenure comes to terms with it soon as he’s out. So quickly, that he specifies that he’d only drink milk when a host serves him black tea.

It’s Annamma (Sanusha) who reminds the viewers with her temperament that all’s not hunky-dory and personal woes remain. This might give way to some mixed feelings, but all’s to be forgotten as we wait for more surprises!

Where humour counts, the most effortless performances came from Chemban Vinod and Neeraj Madhav. The Thrissur slang was slapped on aplenty, and Chemban Vinod masterfully handled the role of a small-time thief in Thrissur with his fleeting expressions and fine-tuned intonations.

Neeraj Madhav stirs up quite a ruckus too, as the gullible Brahmin boy, whose livelihood depends on the highly misuse-able video cameras that he makes! The strength of the movie is that it finds good humour even in unlikely places.

Director Lijo Jose Pellissery makes an effective priest, with a role that seems Innocent’s domain of expertise with his quirky brand of comedy, and is impressive. Asif Ali rides an Enfiled and bashes up people intermittently.


Rex Vijayan’s BGM is good for the movie, but it’s been tried and tested way too many times.

The movie has a subdued Prithviraj, and it’s meant to move slowly and cautiously. While the end result brings in much appreciation, the detailing that could have gone into the story-telling is missed.

You sit through this one since you can get a whiff of something big about to happen towards the end, since nothing great happens throughout! As for the thieves, a couple of them do steal your heart for good.

'Mr Fraud' Mohanlal Starrer Gets Mixed Reactions

Posted by Unknown | Monday, May 19, 2014 | Posted in ,





B. Unnikrishnan's "Mr Fraud" has received mixed reviews from critics.


"Mr Fraud" is a heist film with Mohanlal doing the lead role. The film's other cast members include Dev Gill, Pallavi Purohit, Mia George and Manjari Phadnis.

Expectations were high for the film as Mohanlal and the film's director Unnikrishnan have teamed up for the third time post the success of their last two releases "Madambi" (2008) and "Grandmaster" (2012). However, "Mr Fraud" has received mixed reviews from critics, and it remains to be seen if the film will impress the audience.

The film's story is about a fraudster whose task is to rob the treasure belonging to an old royal family. The action thriller has Mohanlal appearing as a conman with many names and many faces. He is a high-tech thief, who along with his two accomplices, goes about robbing places.

Once, he is offered a good deal to conduct a heist and rob the treasure belonging to a royal family. The members of the royal family are fighting legal battles over the distribution of wealth, which is worth billions of rupees. In this scenario, Mr Fraud manages to gain entry inside the palace by posing himself as an evaluator of the wealth. The royal family members, police personnel and a private security team are guarding the treasure. Whether Mr Fraud will be able to loot the treasure forms the crux of the story.

Critics have given mixed feedback to the Mohanlal starrer. "Mr Fraud" is a decent masala entertainer, though it not as gripping as one would expect from a heist film, said the critics.

However, they have heaped praises on Mohanlal's performance. They said that the actor has given a stellar performance in the film and his looks, one-liners will be a treat for his fans. The other actors including Siddhique and Vijay Babu have done their parts well.

The film's technical aspects including the visuals and the film's background scores have also received positive feedback from critics. They said that the songs composed by Gopi Sunder are decent, but they appear unwanted in the thriller flick.

Entertainment Industry Tracker Sreedhar Pillai said "Mr Fraud" is a "decent mass masala catering purely 2 @Mohanlal fans. He seems 2 b enjoying it as he communicates straight with his fan."

"Run of the mill, @Mohanlal plays 2 the galleries & cashes in on his larger than life image with some punchlines & style," he further said.

"Mr Fraud is not at all such a tedious watch with its luxuriant display of gadgets, air-screen projectors and dialogues resonant with technical terms. The fight and chase happen with the accompaniment of dry-leaves propelled away with vigour, but certainly not as unbearable as the tiring song-sequences which offer no mercy for ears," said Aswin J Kumar of The Times of India.

"This one is not a family entertainer you want to rush to the first week, or the second for that matter, unless you're a hardcore Mohanlal fan or a diehard B Unnikrishnan admirer. Predictable, mechanical and lukewarm – something you usually wait to see on the television on a slow Sunday afternoon or at bargain price from the DVD store, according toChitramala.

HOW OLD ARE YOU Return of the heroine

Posted by Unknown | Sunday, May 18, 2014 | Posted in ,




Comebacks come laden with huge baggage and it is often difficult for the film to live up to the expectations. Manju Warrier’s comeback film, How Old Are You’, goes beyond those expectations and how!

As Nirupama, the UD clerk who has given up her dreams for her family, Manju Warrier delivers a power-packed performance to start her second innings in Mollywood.

Guilty

At 36, Nirupama is often told that she is not good enough and is made to feel guilty about her age.


The monotony of her life is broken when a question her daughter asks in school lands Nirupama before the President of India.

The rest of the film is about her journey to discover for herself the answer to her question and, in turn, to find her true self.

‘How Old Are You’ is the ‘Queen’ moment for Malayalam cinema, and reminiscent of Sridevi’s ‘English Vinglish’. It is also one of those rare films that will bring crowds to the theatre just to watch a middle-aged female protagonist perform.

Director Rosshan Andrrews teams up with the scriptwriter duo Bobby-Sanjay after Mumbai Police to deliver a meaningful cinematic experience.

Kudos to the team for bringing back the heroine to Malayalam cinema, which was content with portraying women as satellites around male superstars.

Patriarchial society

The film deals deftly with the treatment a patriarchal society metes out to women - tying them down to stereotypical roles and making them feel guilty for chasing their dreams. The film’s parallels to the actress’ personal life cannot be missed. That the film deals with the dangerously relevant topic of food adulteration and roots for household farming are bonuses.


Kunchacko Boban gives one of his career best performances as the dominating husband.

But the film, from start to end, belongs to Manju Warrier, who brings in freshness, vitality and versatility back to the screen and you cannot quite believe that she has been away for 14 long years.

A must-watch, the film is also her way of making a statement – that age does not matter and you are never too old to chase your dreams. Ab ki baar, Manju Warrier!